The Danger of Empty Religion

1 Samuel 15:1-35

Definition of Empty Religion

•Little or no relationship with God•Verses 15, 30 “the Lord your God”•Bible continually points to the need for a personal relationship with God•Rom 10:9 “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Definition of Empty Religion

•Relying on the faith of others•“please pardon my sin, and return with me, that I may worship God”•We only rely on Jesus Christ•1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

Definition of Empty Religion

•More concerned about public display than personal piety•“I have sinned; yet honor me now, please, before the elders of my people and before Israel”•Matt 6:1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them…”

Characteristics of Empty Religion

•Disobedience•“But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best…”•God desires obedience •“To obey is better than sacrifice”•Why did God demand their destruction?

Characteristics of Empty Religion

•The sinfulness of the people•Gen 15:16 “For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete”•Deut 9:5 “It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to posses their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord…drives them out from before you.”

Characteristics of Empty Religion

•The past of the Amalekites•Exodus 17•Deut 25:17-19 “Remember what Amalek did to you on

the way as you came out of Egypt, how he attacked you on the way when you were faint and weary, and cut off your tail, those who were lagging behind you, and he did not fear God. Therefore when the LORD your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.”

Characteristics of Empty Religion

•The future of the Amalekites•1 Samuel 30; Esther 3:1

•What should we think about war today?•Israel is a distinct nation with a distinct history

Characteristics of Empty Religion

•Government has the right to force•“he does not bear the sword in vain”•Matthew 5:39 doesn’t even support personal pacifism•“But whoever slaps you on your right cheek turn the other to him also.”

Characteristics of Empty Religion

•Jesus makes a distinction between the political and the spiritual•Mark 12:17 “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar, and to God the things that are God’s”

•We can vote, we can even resist, but we must accept responsibility•Acts 4:19 “you judge”

Characteristics of Empty Religion

•Lying•“I have performed the commandment of the Lord”

•Greed and ingratitude •“spared all that was good”•“did not the Lord God anoint you as king over Israel?”

Characteristics of Empty Religion

•Refusal to accept responsibility•“They have brought them…”•“But the people took…”

Consequences of Empty Religion

•God’s judgment•How it affected Saul•Rejected as king (23, 26, 28)•Help removed (Samuel and Spirit)•How it affects non-believers•John 3:36 “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Consequences of Empty Religion

•How it affects believers•1 Corinthians 3:11-17

•God’s sorrow•Toward Saul•“I greatly regret” (11)•“the Lord regretted” (35)•Toward Christians•“Eph 4:30 “do not grieve the Holy Spirit”

Consequences of Empty Religion

•Toward non-Christians•Ezekiel 33:11 “‘As I live, says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die…’”